Tension
by Zaln
Summary: In a ploy to improve the relationships between genin teams, Tsunade implements a program where 4 genins from different teams must live together. Now Naruto is stuck living with TenTen, Ino, and Kiba. And the Tension is running high. TenNaru InoNaru triang
1. Prolouge: Just A Plan

Ok, this is a fic I've wanted to write for awhile. I like NaruIno fics but there aren't a lot of them out there. So I decided to write one. Then I saw a NaruTen fic and I thought that they could be an interesting couple. Then I was like 'Hey! Every loves love triangles!' So here goes, a TenNaru InoNaru love triangle fic. It should be relatively short (only a few chapters).

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. I'm just a fan, which is why I'm writing _fan_fiction.

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A Simple Plan

It had started as a simple get together between friends. Tsunade, now The Fifth Hokage, and Jiraiya, of the legendary Three Ninjas, were somewhere that a normal person would not suspect two people of their status would be, unless of course, they knew the said people. If that was the case, then it would come as no surprise to find the two sitting at a bar.

The two seemed to be having a good time and enjoying each other's company. At least, that was from what Kakashi could see. When he could not find the Hokage in her office, he mentally ran off the list of place she could be. He was glad he had decided to check here first instead of the hot-springs, no matter how tempting it was. The bar was small and quite quaint. Six plain four legged stools in row, in front of a polished wooden bar table. A plain banner with _The Spot_ was written on it, and a chubby bartender completed the picture.

With a tired sigh, he sat down on a stool next to Tsunade, and waited for her to acknowledge him. It didn't take long, and when she turned to face him he was surprised to see her more sober than he had expected; though Jiraiya's condition was clear by his loud laughing, (more) open leering, and the occasional hiccup that escaped him.

"Kakashi-san", Tsunade's slightly husky voice called to him, "I assume you're here with news about the Uchiha boy." This was confirmed with a nod. "Well then, please share. And while you're at it, join us in a drink."

"If you insist, Hokage-sama. Sasuke has been different since his return from Orochimuro," he began, motioning for the bartender to serve him some sake, "This is as we expected, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with him. He totally ignores Sakura, and one of these days either he or Naruto is going to end up dead, since I'm not always going to be around to stop their seemingly endless fights."

Tsunade nodded; processing the information she had been given. She was slightly distracted though, since she had never seen someone drink _through _a mask without having it drenched in liquid.

There was a moment of silence, until Jiraiya stuck his head close to Kakashi's, his breath smelling of alcohol. "Kakashhhiiii! Ay huv a secret missiioon that ay neeed jur help wit!" His arm snaked around Kakashi's neck, and he pulled him closer. He put his had to his mouth and looked around suspiciously, though he seemed to forget Tsunade was right next to him. "Diss mission es a verry importa…impor…ah…_speshial_reco…recono…um…info getting, yeah that's it! Info getting missiooon!"

Kakashi leaned back as to put space between him and the drunken shinobi. He had a feeling he knew what this 'info getting mission' entailed. "Jiraiya-sama, would this mission by any chance have to do with the women's bathhouse?"

"Shee! Jur mad skillzz uv intutitshion da reazzon joo es feerred. Come! Joyn mee and we-" Whatever else he was going to say was cut off as Tsunade 'accidentally' backhanded him off the stool. She then gave Kakashi a look as to say 'continue'.

"Um, yes, well other than that, Sasuke doesn't really seem to be much different, just more intense in his training. He still ignores all the other genins." Tsunade nodded solemnly, both pointedly ignored the cry of "My eye!"

"And the rest of Team 7? How are Sakura and Naruto coming along?" Tsunade inquired.

Kakashi scratched his head, pausing for a minute before continuing with a smile. "Sakura's okay. She's a little concerned with her slow rate of improvement, but her attention really lies in Sasuke, as always."

"And Naruto?" Tsunade asked, trying to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible, yet still unable to keep some concern from slipping through.

"Naruto is…" he paused before continuing on, "Naruto…well, I'm not going to lie to you. I don't think he's doing too well. His and Sasuke's fights haven't been pretty. Of course what he wants is Sasuke's recognition, which is a nearly impossible goal at this point. However, I think what's really hurting him the most, besides Team 7's drifting apart, is Sakura's one-track Sasuke infatuation. Even after a fight that Sasuke blatantly started, she some how twisted it to be Naruto's fault. He's always brushed it off before, but lately I think it's starting to get to him. Other than that he's also had a few fights with genins on other teams. I seem to recall a fight between him and Kiba a few weeks ago."

Kakashi paused and placed the sake dish to his lips. He sipped it lightly, before returning it back to the bar table. "Come to think of it, the inter-team relationships of the genin teams are not very good, bordering on dismal."

Tsunade nodded at the information. "I see. Team rivalries are not uncommon. However, the way you speak of it worries me. Could this have the potential to create disunity between them, and grow to be a real problem?"

 "Well, if left unchecked it could escalate; then again, it could just be puberty." Kakashi said with his characteristic cheery smile.

"Be serious, Kakashi. With the damages this village is recovering from there is no room us to be squabbling amongst ourselves. We will address this later.  For now let's just enjoy our drinks."

Jiraiya seemed to have sobered slightly, and had managed to climb back up onto the stool. "Puberty? Hah! He wouldn't know the difference between a boy and a girl if he lived with one."

Tsunade froze for a second. Then, her mouth started to morph into a wicked grin. She related her thoughts to her two companions, "I think I figured out a way to improve inter-team relations," she said.

"What do you mean?" asked Kakashi.

"Well, Jiraiya's comment gave me an idea. How about we take a few genins from each team and have them live with each other for awhile."

Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a second before saying, "Hey! That might just work!"

Into to the night, the three master ninjas continued to develop the plans that would soon affect the lives of Konoha's unsuspecting genins.

Damn that's short. It looked a lot bigger before I viewed it as a web page. Whatcha ya think about it? Anyway I'll definitely be posting the first chapter at least, so give me a chance to lay everything out. From there it depends on if anyone likes it. I'm not into that bullshit about X amount of reviews or I won't post a new chapter, but since this story isn't all _that_ important to me, I won't continue if it seems like no one is enjoying it.

Aight I'm out,

-Z


	2. Chapter 1: Blunt Impact Trauma

Here we go again. Sorry for keeping yall waitin, but it took a long time for inspiration to do this fic came back. Even now I kinda had to force myself to do it. This fic's not exactly my style. I'm more a drama/angst/action/adventure kinda guy and humor is really hard to write. Enough of this though, just get on with it and read

what you've all been waiting for.

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Chapter 1

Blunt Impact Trauma

Naruto yawned. The sunshine that spilled into his room prevented him from getting further rest. Until he pulled the curtains shut, that is. Snuggling back down into the warmth of his bed covers, he allowed a content sigh to escape him, as sleeping late was on of the simple pleasures he enjoyed immensely. Naruto's trip back to the realm of the unconscious was cut short when someone banged loudly on his door. Now wide awake, Naruto pulled himself out of bed, intent on finding out just who had robbed him his morning enjoyment.

"Damn it! The one day I get to relax and someone has to go and screw it up already!" He stomped toward the door, intending to find out just who it was and what was so important.

"What the hell do you-Sasuke?" Sure enough, his black haired nemesis was standing outside his door with a slightly amused expression on his face.

"Damn it Sasuke! Don't you have anything better to do than to bother me on our day off?" Naruto asked.

"Don't flatter yourself Dobe. I just came to inform you that Tsunade-sama has called a meeting for all the genin teams because Kakashi-sensei asked me to. The meeting is at eleven in front of the academy. And you're right, for once. I do have something better to do idiot, it's called training. You should be doing it too instead of wasting your time if you ever want to beat me; then again, you will never beat me no matter how much training you do," Sasuke drawled out with a smirk.

Anger boiled in Naruto's chest. "Bastard!" He cried out as he swung at Sasuke. Sasuke pivoted on his left foot, shifting his right leg back and leaning back a little, letting Naruto's fist pass right by him. He took advantage of Naruto's over-extended position by grabbing Naruto's wrist, yanking him forward, and planting his knee in the blonde's solar plexus.

Naruto went crashing to the floor. He gasped for breath as he pulled himself into a sitting position. The exchange had only lasted a second, but Sasuke had come out as the obvious winner of the mini skirmish.

"My point exactly", Sasuke said smugly, before turning to leave. Naruto grumbled out "lucky shot" as he got back on his feet. Sasuke only replied with a "Pft" before bounding over the rooftops.

Naruto sighed as he watched him go. Shaking his head in disgust, he grumbled out loud. "Why can't I be asshole free for one day? This day isn't going as I hoped it would, and it just started!"

Another sigh escaped him when he realized the implications of what had just happened. He just had his ass handed to him by Sasuke, again. He knew that if it had been a ninjutsu fight, he could have held his own and maybe even beat Sasuke. However, there were times when using ninjutsu wasn't possible, and genjutsu and taijutsu were the only options; both of which he was weak in comparison to Sasuke and most of the other genins.. Genjutsu he didn't really care about because in his opinion, it was weak, but taijutsu was something he knew he had to work on. Sasuke's ninjutsu was as good as his and Sasuke's taijutsu was better. Sasuke was right in saying that he needed to train if he wanted to beat him.

He pushed thoughts of Sasuke out of his mind as he made his way into his kitchen. It was impossible for him to go back to sleep after his little scuffle, so he decided to make the best of it by starting the day off early. He opened up his cupboard to be confronted by a wall of ramen. Making a quick decision to have plain instant ramen for breakfast because he had misao ramen for dinner, he set the container on the counter and filled up the tea kettle with water. While filling up the kettle he decided to take a shower while he waited for the water to boil. He made sure to fill it up with more water then he knew was necessary so as not to start a fire if all the water evaporated (which had happened more then once) and headed to the bathroom.

Refreshed from his short five minute shower, Naruto took the whistling kettle off the stove, filled the cup with hot water, waited impatiently for the noodles to soften, and slurped them down with reckless abandon. When he attempted to get dressed, he ran into a problem. His normal orange outfit which happened to be his favorite clothes seemed to have shrunk. Naruto scratched his head. He didn't think that they shrunk in the wash. After all, he did all his laundry, as infrequent as it was done, by hand. He knew he had grown some since he had bought the outfit. Recently it had been feeling tight and restricted but it had still seemed to fit. With a sigh towards the fact that his ninja outfit was definitely too small for him, Naruto began to look for something else to wear

He dug through his closet, trying to find anything that fit him. After searching for awhile, the only thing he had come up with were an old pair of denim pants where the waist still fit but the pant-legs were too short, and a faded navy blue t-shirt with an orange spiral design on the front. He quickly solved the pants problem by using a kunai to fashion them into shorts.

His clothing problem solved, he walked out his apartment, not forgetting to lock the door behind him, and dashed off into the streets. His scuffle with Sasuke was still in the back of his mind. The smug look Sasuke had given him had him just itching to start training so he could wipe it off his face.

Before long he reached one of the wooded training areas. After he warmed up, he started with endurance exercises. Most people knew that he had very high stamina. That was in part due to Kyubi's chakra and healing capabilities. Naruto was at loath to rely on the demon's help for anything, so he now trained to increase his stamina so he would only have to use Kyubi's chakra as a last resort.

After finishing his regular exercises, he began working on his jutsus. The Kage Bunshin was second nature to him now, so he had no need to practice it. He did practice the Rasengen though. He had yet to master it, and still needed clones to create one. After working on that for awhile, he began work on his new jutsu. The jutsu was not really something new, but a variation of the Rasengen. In order to use Rasengen, he had to get close to the person he was attacking and hit them. He figured that if he was able to attack from long range, then it would be more of a threat. This all sounded good in theory, but it wasn't working. As soon as the ball left his hands it lost cohesion and his chakra went everywhere. Dropping it because of his lack of progress, he remembered that he wanted to work on his taijutsu. Part of the reason it was hard for him to improve was because he never had a sparring partner to help him out. Clones worked somewhat, but since they fought just like him and weren't as tough as a human opponent, all they were really good for was to sharpen his reflexes; which he did. Sasuke would just throw it in his face if he asked him, especially since he was training to be stronger than Sasuke, and Sakura was too busy trying to get Sasuke to like her that she'd barely notice if Naruto tripped and broke his neck.

_Hmph, I'll show her one day that that asshole Sasuke wasn't worth her time. He won't be so smug when Sakura starts liking me after I beat his ass into the dirt! _Naruto grinned, letting himself relax and slip into a daydream of him and Sakura. When he came to the part when she was going to give him a kiss his stomach growled, shaking him out of his fantasy.

_Damn it! I was just gettin' to the good part too. Ah well, I guess I might as well head over to the Ichikaru for some lunch. _He rose to his feet and wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve. The sun beat down on him as he made his way out of the training area and past the fence that separated it from the village. It was getting too hot to train as the sun had almost reached its zenith. Something tickled the back off his mind but he couldn't quite grasp it so he shrugged it off. He bobbed and weaved through the midday crowds, eventually making it to the shade of the Ichikaru stand.

"Hey kid, what'll it be?" asked the familiar chef.

"The usual, and make it fast, I'm starving!" answered Naruto with a grin.

"Yea yea, one miso prawn commin' up." With that, he turned and made his way back into the kitchen.

Naruto swiveled his stool and leaned back against the counter as he waited. He stared out into the sunny market place and watched as people went about their business. There were people doing errands, stand owners trying to get potential customers to buy things, and children playing in the streets. He watched as a little girl approached a group of kids playing "catch the ninja" and asked to join in there game. The children agreed, and soon they were all running around again, giggling as they played. His own childhood memories sprung up and a wave of sadness and a little envy washed over him when he thought of all the times he had asked to join in other's games. These thoughts were abandoned as he heard the clinking of a dish being placed on the counter behind him. He dug into his huge bowl of ramen, savoring its miso goodness.

"Hey, Shinta! It's a quarter past eleven; your break was over fifteen minutes ago! So get back to work!" the head chef yelled to one of the employees. The young boy gave a sigh of annoyance as he said goodbye to a pretty village girl he had been talking with.

Naruto wasn't paying attention to that though. _Eleven-fifteen, why do I feel like there's somethin I should remem-The meeting! _"Crap!" he cried out as he grabbed his bowl and dashed away from the stand.

"Hey you forgot to pay for that!" shouted the chef.

"Put it on my tab!" Naruto yelled back.

He took to the rooftops to avoid the crowds of the market place. He gobbled down his ramen as he ran, putting his hard earned ninja skills to good use (at least in his mind) by not spilling a drop as he bounced from rooftop to rooftop. Finishing his soup he tossed the bowl aside, ignoring a yelp of pain from someone in the streets below.

With his hunger satisfied, he focused on getting to the meeting. He picked up speed as he approached the end of the shopping section. Up ahead there was a wide intersection that separated the market areas from a residential area; the academy was only about a block in that direction. Naruto frowned. If he had to abandon the rooftops it would cost him valuable time, as the street was one of the busiest in Konoha and crowded with people. However there was no way he could jump the entire gap. An idea formed in his mind and he grinned, beginning to perform the handseals that were second nature to him now.

"Kage no Bunshin!" he yelled. Two clones appeared at the edge of the last rooftop before the street. Without pausing he gave a small running hop, his feet landing in the interlocked hands of his two clones. As soon as his feet were planted in their hands the clones immediately launched him into the air, as to not kill his forward momentum. Naruto released more charka, adding more thrust to the propulsion they had given him and destroying the now unneeded clones in the process.

His plan was successful.

Naruto shot over the street like a blurry orange comet, clearing the intersection completely.

Actually, maybe his plan was _too _successful, he thought, as he continued to rocket over houses. It occurred to him that it might have been wiser to have thought his plan out better, as he had forgotten an important part: how was he going to stop? It appeared nature had thought it through for him, as gravity took hold and he began to descend, still traveling at an alarmingly fast pace. The flat roof rose to meet him, and he had no choice but to try role out of his fall. He land on the roof and instinctively rolled into a ball as his body continued to roll until he could safely uncurl and roll sideways until his momentum was halted.

Naruto was relatively surprised to find himself absent of injuries besides a few scrapes and bruises that were already beginning to heal. With a grin he stood up and dusted himself off. He looked across the street to his left and partially hidden by a small building was the academy's front field; which was filled with gennin.

_Today might not be so bad after all, _he thought. He searched through the crowd until he found a familiar spot of pink head; he had expected to find a raven haired one sitting next to his crush, but he was no where to be found. _Today's definitely looking up! _Excited by the chance to spend time with his love, Naruto gave a running leap; this time forgetting to check what was above him. His lack of foresight found him tangled in clothes lines. After a brief battle with the Clothes Lines from Hell, he was able to swing down to the roof on the other side of the street to then make his way over to the mass of gennins gathered in the field.

He was surprised to find that the meeting had yet to start. A few other stragglers were still arriving He continued on to the area where he had seen Sakura. As he walked he noticed that some people had started to stair at him. Some laughed, some just rolled their eyes with a disgusted look on their face, and some of the female ninjas looked outraged. Naruto mentally scratched his head. He was used to the disgusted looks thrown at him, but there was no apparent reason for the laughter or outrage. _Whatever, _he shrugged. A trio of familiar ninjas on their way to the stage froze. Now Naruto was sure something was amiss, considering the twitching in Tsunades eye, the amused approval in Kakashi's, and the doubled-over full-bellied laughter coming from Jiraiya.

It was at that moment that Sakura decided give him a clue; by decking him in the head with a cry of "Pervert!"

Naruto was knocked to the ground with his head ringing; he absent mindedly wondered why it was that Sakura always hit him harder than anyone else, enemies included.

"Sakura-chan, what was that for?" he whined as he rubbed his aching head. A shiver of fear ran down his spine and dread blossomed in his chest as his came in contact with something soft and lacy tangled in his hair. Dreading he was going to find, he yanked the offending item out of his hair came face to face with a lacy, black (and quite sexy looking) thong.

The idea that the day might turn out to be alright suddenly died horrible death.

With a strangled cry Naruto threw the offending article of clothing away from him, accidentally hitting a teenaged gennin in the face with it. For some reason, he didn't seem to mind very much. Naruto didn't notice though, he was too busy trying to explain his lack of fault.

"Ah, Sakura-chan it's not what it looks like! I can explain!" he pleaded with her.

"Explain what? How on top of everything else you're also a pervert? What's not what it looks like, huh? That you're not wearing panties on your head?" she yelled out.

"Yes! I mean no! I mean there was close line, and I accidentally-" he stammered to explain, but Sakura cut him off.

"Stop making excuses, you're as bad as Kakashi-sensie! At least _he_ doesn't lie about being a pervert. Ugh, you're so disgusting!" she screamed, before stomping back to where she was sitting.

He sighed as he got up off the ground. He looked over to find Tsunade's face buried in her palm in a show of exasperation. The look in the Kakashi's eye was now mockingly amused, and he barely resisted the urge to give him the finger. His eyes found Jiraiya next, who was rolling around on the ground in a much undignified manner. He was laughing hysterically, tears of humor poured down his cheeks; he was laughing so hard he looked like he might have an aneurysm.

Naruto gritted his teeth. _Laugh it now up Pervert-sennin, but I promise you you're gonna regret it_ He stomped away angrily, "accidentally" crushing Jiraiya's hand under his sandal. The yelp of pain that reached his ears was oddly satisfying. He continued walking in the direction he has seen Sakura walk off in until he caught sight of her. This time however there was a familiar raven haired person sitting next to her. Sakura turned and glared at him as he approached. Sasuke turned also but said nothing. This was because he didn't need to; his look of smug amusement said it for him.

Naruto's hands balled into fists. _Bastard, he probably saw everything! Now I'll never live this down!_ Angrily he took at seat in the nearest available space.

By now Tsunade had made her way to the stage accompanied by Kakashi and a glowering Jiraiya. Naruto noticed that Jiraiya was cradling his crushed hand and grinned. _This is only the beginning Pervert-sennin. _

Tsunade stepped up to the podium on the stage while Jiraiya and Kakashi joined the other high ranking ninjas in chairs arranged on the stage behind her. As soon as the assembled gennins quieted, she began to speak.

"It has come to my attention that there have been problems between the members of many gennins teams or even between whole teams themselves. While team rivalries are normal and sometimes, to an extent, encouraged, we must never lose sight of the fact that we are all ninjas of the same village. If that happens we will be weakened. We cannot let that happen. As your hokage, I will not _allow_ that to happen. Although the attack by the Village of the Hidden Sound may seem a long time past, make no mistake that we are still recovering. We cannot afford to be divided..."

Naruto stopped paying attention to what she was saying. Instead, he truly studied his surroundings for the first time since he had arrived. Looking around, he was surprised to see so many gennin gathered. He estimated that there was nearly fifty gennins assembled in the field. He realized that there were many gennins who he had never met before. His attention was brought back to Tsunade as he caught was she was now saying.

"I have come up to a solution to this problem through a new program which will now be in institution. From now on, four to five gennins from different teams will be grouped together, and will be required to live together in the same residence"

Naruto's eye's widened and his jaw hung open. _What!_ The stunned faces of the gennins around him mirrored his own shock. Finaly it began registering and bursts of conversation broke out among the mass of gennins. While some were still too shocked to say anything, some looked excited, most probably and the prospect of living without their parent's supervision, while others, like Sasuke, looked annoyed.

Tsunade waited for a few moments before continuing.

"The program is will work like this. Your group will be required to survive by yourselves. You are required to find a new residence. It doesn't matter whether you decide to pay for an apartment or camp out in the forest, as long as you do it together without any outside assistance. This means that you may not receive funds or any other type of monetary or utilitarian aid from any one outside of your group, even if they are your parents or guardian. You are allowed twenty four hours away from your residence once week. You will still be required to go on missions and train with team and your instructor. You will not be penalized for being away from your residence for more than the allotted time if you are on a mission. As of today, you have fourteen days to find a new residence, move out of your current one, and inform your instructors of where you will be staying. This will be in place until we determine that the inter-team relations have improved. Now I will call out the gennins teams. When you hear your team called please to the area indicated by numbered sign."

Naruto waited impatiently until Team 7 was called. Then he, along with Sakura, Sasuke, and four other teams made their way over the area which had a tall sign with the number eight on it. Waiting for them there, along with four other instructors, was Kakashi. As soon as they arrived he tossed them each a scroll, then disappeared with a farewell message of "good luck".

Sasuke opened his scroll first. His eyes narrowed as he read it, but he said nothing. Instead he casually tossed it up into the air and then incinerated it with a wordless Katoun no Jutsu. With that, he turned and left to an unknown destination.

Sakura opened hers next. A cry of exasperated disbelief escaped her as she read the contents of her scroll.

"Who's in your group, Sakrua-chan?" Naruto asked curiously.

"None of your business Naruto" she spat, before she too turned and walked away.

Naruto stared at the scroll in his hand. He wasn't eager to find out who he was grouped up with, as his luck had seemingly deserted him today. With a sigh, he unraveled the scroll. "Might as well get it over with", he muttered as he began to read it.

_To Uzamaki Naruto. You have been grouped with the gennins listed below. Please proceed to the area indicated with a sign corresponding to the number printed below as soon as possible._

_Group Members_

_Yamanaka Ino_

_Ashikanba TenTen_

_Inuzuka Kiba_

_Please proceed to area: 12_

"So that's where they went", Naruto pondered aloud until what was on the scroll hit him. "Kiba! I'm in a group with _Kiba!_ Damnit!" Naruto didn't understand why today had figuratively kicked him in the balls repeatedly. After he had calmed down somewhat, he thought about the other members of his group as he made his way over to area twelve. He remembered that the Ino chick was Sakura's rival, especially when it came to catching Sasuke. Naruto made a face somewhere between a frown and a pout. _I don't think I'm gonna like her already, _he thought. He knew even less about TenTen. He vaguely remembered seeing her at the last Chuunin exams, but that was it.

Finally he reached the area with a sign that had the number twelve. Waiting their, was Kiba, Ino, and TenTen along with an unknown chuunin. The chuunin waited for him to arrive before he spoke. "I'm going to assume you all can read and therefore are all meant to be here because I don't have time to sit around and babysit you kids. Feel free to introduce yourselves to one another. You can start planning what you're going to do now or something, I don't care", he said with a disinterested voice.

"Who're you calling a kid!" exclaimed Naruto. Kiba yelled out something similar. The chuunin just gave them a bored look.

"Well, we pretty much know each other already", said Ino.

The chuunin gave them an apathetic shrug before he turned and left. For a few moments they stood in awkward silence, not knowing what to say to the people they'd be living with for the time being. Naruto and Kiba glared at each other but they tried to refrain from fighting. Naruto, feeling decidedly uncomfortable with the silence, tried to strike up conversation.

"So, anybody like ramen?" he asked.

"Hmph, that's all you ever talk about, stupid. What? You don't have the intelligence to think of anything beyond that? I wouldn't be surprised" Kiba sniped, unable to refrain any longer.

Naruto growled at Kiba's comment. "You're just mad because the only food you probably eat is dog food. I bet you're not even house broken. When we get our new place you better not pee on the rug" Naruto gunned back with a smirk.

The comment obviously got to Kiba as it was his turn to growl.

"Yea? At least I'm not the one who walks around with panties on their head!" he yelled back.

_Shit! He saw that?_ "That was an accident!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Will you two stop yelling!" Ino screamed.

"Hey! He's the one who started it!" Naruto bellowed, pointing to Kiba.

TenTen pinched the bridge of her nose, muttering "Why did I get stuck with these idiots".

Ino continued trying to get Kiba and Naruto to stop arguing. "I don't care who started, just be quite! Shut up Kiba!" she yelled as Kiba was about to open his mouth. Then she turned to Naruto and said "And let's get one thing straight. If you go anywhere near my underwear I'll make you half the man you think you are".

A vein began to bulge on Naruto's forehead as Kiba started laughing.

"I _said_ that was and accident! Ac. Ci. Dent. As in _unintentional!_" he screamed at her, his chest heaving with frustration.

She looked at him for a second and blinked. Naruto tried to calm down and get his breathing under control.

"........."

"..................."

"..............................."

"I'm, serious. If I find even one pair missing I'll-"

"Aarrgg!" Naruto screamed and grabbed his hair in frustration. He then proceeded to walk to the nearest metal pole, and slam his head against it was hard as he could. He slumped to the ground unconscious.

That was when Kiba decided to speak up again, "Do you think he wears panties on places _other _than his head?"

Ino looked thoughtful.

TenTen messaged her temples as she attempted to ward off an oncoming headache.

Naruto twitched unconsciously.

But maybe that was for the best.

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I'm finally done goddamnit! Somehow I managed to finish this. Halfway through working on the second half of this Word crashed and I lost about two hours of progress. I _really _hate doing things over again, but somehow I forced myself to retype it cuz I promised myself that I would get this up there for you guys today. 

I would like to apologize to all my readers for taking so long to finish this, and to give much thanks to all those who reviewed that short little prologue I put out.

The next chapter probably won't be coming out for awhile, judging as I have a whole lot of other fic ideas, I want to start writing my original stories, I have to update my art stuff cuz I haven't drawn anything in awhile, and I'm not too happy with the way the actual Naruto manga is going right now nor have I read any Naruto fics that have inspired me in awhile. Oh yea, and Halo 2 pwnz me. When it does come out I think it'll be much better than this one cuz I can actually get around to the character interaction and all that good stuff.

As always, tell me what thought; it may not seem like reviews help me to update faster, but they do because it stays on my conscious.

One love,

-Z


	3. Chapter 2: Hail to the King, Baby

Um, yea, I'm not dead. Fooled yah, ha ha…aight fine I'm sorry this took over a friggin year to complete, but with my interest turned toward my art earlier in the year and my waning interest in the actual Naruto series it was hard for me to right. Also I have a double disorder so a lot of time my mood sucks and I didn't think I could write humor like that. Turns out I was wrong and that once I get into it just starts coming out.

**Disclaimer: **Hey guys guess what? Did you know that these disclaimers really don't mean shit? I mean of course they say you don't own whatever, in this case Naruto and the characters, and that you don't make any money yada yada yada, but it really doesn't matter cuz even without profit it's still actually infringement on some one's intellectual property without their consent? And you guys believe this flimsy couple of sentences will protect you from a law suit. Hah, don't make me laugh. So why am I still writing this fanfiction? Cuz you know what, the system doesn't scare me. I'm a rebel, I say fuck the system! I'm outside the system! I'm-gets lawsuit-boned.

Shit.

* * *

Chapter 2

Hail to the King, Baby

Naruto awoke to a red sky and a pounding headache. He lay still for a few moments; trying to figure just how he had come into the situation he was in. Nothing came to him until his eyes focused on a high pole with the number twelve high above him.

It hit him like a punch from Sakura.

He was quickly reminded of the gennin meeting earlier and then the meeting of his group. He winced at the memory of how it ended, and then shook his head. _I can't believe they'd just leave me here, _he thought. _Well, I mean of course _Kiba _would, but what about those two girls? I haven't done anything to Ino I don't think. Then again, she _is _a Sasuke fan-girl_. The thought made an uncharacteristic sneer appear on his face for a moment, before it disappeared. _And that other chick-Tensen or Tenren or something-what could she have against me? I've never even talked to her. _

Naruto figured that she was just a bitch.

Still, he felt a slight pang of sadness that he had been shot down when he had tried to be friendly. However, years of practice in dealing with such feelings allowed him to quickly stomp it out as he rose from the grass, stretched, and began the trek back to his apartment.

The streets were relatively deserted as it was late afternoon. This suited Naruto just fine, as he had no desire to deal with the looks he would no doubt receive had they been full of people. He walked slowly with his hands in his pockets and his head down, barely noticing as his surroundings changed from that of the middle class residents to the dilapidated slum area that had been his home for the past fifteen years.

He climbed steps slowly as he made his way towards his dark apartment. He came to rest in front of his door and began to search for his keys. Naruto patted himself down but did not feel them. He was beginning to think he had dropped them at the training ground before he remembered he had put them in his inside pocket. With a sigh of relief he slid his door key into the lock and opened his door. The he was greeted by nothing but darkness on the other side. The blonde ninja had long since stopped caring about the emptiness of his apartment upon his returning to it every night. In an automated motion he closed the door, locked it, and proceeded to his bed without even turning on the light. He forced himself to slip out of his clothes before crashing into his bed, though he let them drop to the floor among other piles. All he wanted to do was sleep.

* * *

The blaring of his alarm clock ripped Naruto from his slumber. He wished that he could take the damned device and smash it into little itty bitty pieces, but he could not afford to waste money on _another_ clock. With a sigh he rolled over and felt around for the off button. Instead he ended up turning on the radio which for reasons unknown to him was set to a country station, with the volume turned all the way up. Now the blonde sprang from his bed, desperate to end the torture that he was being subjected to. Eventually he was able to turn it off, and with a relieved sigh he began his day.

The days highlight just happened to be his instant ramen that morning. After that he had training with his team. This normally made him happy, as it gave him a chance to get stronger and be close to Sakura simultaneously. But this day all he managed to do was be ignored by Kakashi in favor of Sasuke and make a fool of himself in front of Sakura. Frustrated, he returned home and had to eat three more cups of instant ramen than he usually did before he felt better. It was not until four more days had passed that he heard from his soon to-be roommates. This came in the unwelcome form of Kiba.

"Hey, idiot!"

Not exactly what he wanted to hear after a long day of D class missions, but he figured it would be rude not to reply.

"What do you want Rover, I'm too busy to play fetch right now," Naruto said with a smirk. He felt a feeling of satisfaction as he saw Kiba bristle, his face contorting in anger. "Oh yea, I'm sure you have places to go and people to see, seeing as you're so popular," Kiba shot back "we wouldn't want you to be late for your date with ramen now would we? After all, it's probably the only one you're going to get being a dead-last and all."

Ouch, that was personal. However Naruto knew he was the one who had taken it there with the Rover comment. Still, Kiba's remark hit a little too close to home.

"Atleast it's better than Puppy Chow! So, do you have something to say to me are or you just out "marking" your territory."

"Keh. Tenten wanted me to tell you that we're all meeting up tonight to discuss what we're going to do. We'll meet at the Ichiraku at seven since we thought it was the only place you would be able to find, being a moron and all," Kiba said.

"Whatever, idiot," Naruto replied as their insults lost some of their heat. With that Kiba turned and walked away and Naruto began his trek home. His original plan had been to head to the Ichiraku but since he would be meeting the others their later he decided to forgo that for now. After all, he couldn't afford real ramen twice in one day. Not if he wanted some tomorrow anyway.

So instead he went home and took a shower. If there was one thing people would be surprised to know it was that he loved showers. One look around his kitchen with its stacks of dirty dishes and piles of instant ramen cups and they would be at loathe to believe he was the clean squeaky type. And they would be right of course. It wasn't so much the cleanly feeling after the shower he liked, so much as the shower itself. He loved the feeling of water raining down from above and running down his body. When Konoha grew brisk late in the year, there was no better feeling than that of steaming water streaming over his skin; except for maybe the feeling of cool water streaming over his skin during the hot and humid summer.

That was exactly what he when he got home. He was hot and sweaty, and though hot water might soothe his aching muscles he knew it would make him feel unbearably itchy afterwards. He spent more time in the shower than he usually did, being as he needed to kill time. If one lived with the blonde they would probably begin grow suspicious of his overly long showers, prompting them to think up reasons for why a teenage boy would need them. This would probably lead them to the conclusion that both Sakura and Ino had come to. But since he didn't live with anyone, and he was Naruto, the point was mute.

Finally emerging from the shower, he saw nothing to wear in his immediate vicinity besides the clothes he'd been wearing earlier. With a shrug he decided to forgo dressing in favor of going natural. After all, it was his apartment and he could as he pleased. Besides, he always felt manlier when he walked around his apartment naked. Yea, _he_ was king here, and if he wanted to walk with around with his wee wee hanging out he damn sure would, and no one would tell him otherwise!

Naruto struck a pose with his fist in the air and a cry of "I'm the king, bitches!" before realizing how ridiculous he probably looked. Quickly he looked around to see if anyone was watching, before realized it was his apartment, where _he _was king, and he-well, needless to say another round of fist pumping and naked posing occurred.

When Naruto had finally gotten it out of his system he realized he was hungry. He quickly selected some chicken flavored cup ramen off his shelf and set the kettle on the stove. He waited impatiently for the water to begin to boil, egged on by his stomach's rumbling. Finally the kettle began to whistle and he took it off the stove. He poured the water more carefully than normal, aware of the fact that nudity and boiling water were a dangerous mix through previous experience. Finally the cup was full of water and he could barely wait the ten seconds needed for the noodles to soften before digging in. When he did, his eyes glazed over and dumb grin of pleasure spread across his face and he experienced one of life's only truths; there was nothing better than naked ramen.

_Well, maybe naked Ichiraku ramen, _he thought, and wondered whether or not it was worth finding out. The demon container shook his head, realizing he probably wouldn't be able to enjoy it with all the looks he'd receive. The old man probably wouldn't even serve him. After envisioning the scene in his mind Naruto decided that it would probably be uncomfortable for all the parties involved. After all, he wasn't the king _there_.

His instant ramen now devoured, he now made his way over to his dingy couch. The couch itself wasn't very inviting. It was covered in stains and there were patches where the upholstery was worn so thin the insides were visible. Still, it was comfy as hell and Naruto could care less of what it looked like as long as it remained that way. On his way to the couch he snatched some scrolls off the floor intent on reading them to kill some time, but it didn't matter much. Before long he began to dose off, the scroll he was reading slipped from his hands and onto the floor as he drifted off into a dream world of naked ramen.

And what a dream it had been, especially when he had reached the part of Sakura feeding it to him. However, the knocking on his door wasn't expected, and when it turned and when it turned to loud banging and shouts the world came crashing back to him. Now severely pissed and being woken prematurely from a good dream twice in two days by some asshole banging on his door like the world was ending, he stormed and ripped the door open.

"What in the nine hells do you _want_!" he roared. His reply came from one pissed off blond kunoichi roared right back at it.

"We've been waiting for you forever you goddamned dumbass, and your lazy ass has been here the whole damn-" She stopped abruptly in as her eyes widened as if she was seeing him for the first time. He was even more surprised to see Ten Ten behind her with a look that was oddly familiar but he couldn't quite place. Then, it hit him, it was a look he had seen often of Jiraiya's face, yet it looked different on a girl. _As a matter of fact, it's just down right weird coming from _her._ I wonder what that's all about. _Being Naruto, he couldn't quite put two and two together. Turning back to Ino, he noticed she had gone from the gaping she had been doing when he last glanced at her to stammering and pointing at him all while turning an unbelievably bright red. He was about to ask why they acting so strangely when a light breeze whisked by. It left him with a strange feeling of being oddly...

"Oh shit".

Hastily he slammed the door and attempted to gather his wits about. The fact that two girls he barely knew had just seen him naked left the normally blustery shinobi mortified into silence. Finally he regained enough of himself to rush to his closet and look for something to throw on. He found nothing so he hastily picked up his dirty discarded close he had taken off and threw them on in a hurry, foregoing underwear for just the shorts and shirt and he didn't know where his undergarments had gotten to. When he was finally decent, he turned to face the portal to his apartment. It was funny, how something so mundane and harmless could become so threatening now that he could only imagine what waited for him on the other side of it. Mentally he made a note to vandalize a shrine as his next prank seeing as the gods had chosen to use his life as one. He should have known that Tsunade's little proclamation wouldn't bode well. It had all been downhill from there, with the panties and finally this. Naruto wasn't sure if he'd _ever_ be able to live this one down. _Mental note, make sure to vandalize _several_ shrines, this means war!_ He thought to himself. Then, he had an epiphany; what if the gods actually _wanted_ him to do something like that just so they could really make his life hell. _Hah! I caught you! Thought you were slick huh? Well no way, I aint gonna do it! _He thought with smug satisfaction. When the world seem to flicker and snap its fingers as if to say 'Damn', he seriously wondered if he should take the Old Lady up on her offer for therapy.

The banging that erupted from his door brought him back to reality. He a sigh of dread, he turned and approached what he now called the Door of Doom. It sounded ominous and made him not feel like such a coward for being afraid of what lay beyond it. Finally summoning his courage, he willed himself to turn the knob and came face to face with an Ino that was eerily calm.

"Really, I just want to know if you were dropped on you head as a child-" she began to ask.

"Um, well I guess it's possible-"

"Off a building?" she followed flatly.

"Err, probably not, I mean I'm tough, but I'm not _that_-hey!" he yelled as it finally dawned on him that she was insulting him.

"Sorry, my mind is just trying to come up with a logical explanation is all" she deadpanned.

"Well tell your mind to stop alright! I've had enough of its cheek" he replied.

"I'll make sure it gets the message" she said, obviously not impressed.

"If you two are done, you think we could go inside and finally discuss what we came to discuss? Because my arms are _really_ getting tired of lugging these goddamned newspapers all over the goddamned village" said a new voice that was slightly deeper than Ino's. Looking up, Naruto saw that Ten Ten had finally decided to enter into the conversation, and she did not look happy. In fact, he forgot what could have reminded him of Jiraiya because at the moment she reminded him of Tsunade, with her face a mask of barely restrained irritation threatening to bubble over into violence. _Jeeze, why did I have to get stuck with _two_ psycho bitches? Good thing Kiba isn't here or I think I'd have to kill myself. _Then Naruto thought about it.

"Wait a minute, where the hell is Kiba? Shouldn't he be here too? Not that I'm complaining or anything" he finished in a mutter.

"Inuzuka was with us earlier at the Ichiraku where you were supposed to meet us, but when you didn't show up he decided he had better things to do with his time. I shared his sentiments, but Yamanaka here decided to drag me all over this damn village in an effort to find you saying that if we didn't do it now it would never get done. Why you are absolutely necessary I have no idea" she finished, her voice somewhat drawling with an undertone of a growl. Once again, it reminded him of Tsunade.

"I already told you," Ino turned to her with an annoyed look on her face, "we need to know at least three of our incomes for sure if this is going to work" she replied hotly. Ten Ten just rolled her eyes and it was Ino's turn to growl.

"Oi, you two can come in just chill out will you?" Naruto nervously intoned, trying to break the tension. That last thing he needed was a cat fight right in front of his apartment. Well on second thought, maybe if they were wearing white t-shirts and a bucket of water just happened, by chance, to land on top of-Naruto forcibly stomped down those thoughts, forcing the lecherous grin off his face simultaneously. _Damn, I guess I've been spending _way_ too much time around ero-sennin._

Finally all three ninjas entered his apartment and took a seat at the table. Well, seeing as he only had two chairs the girls took seats and he was forced to stand. He had wanted to remind Ino that _he_ was the king of the apartment when she gave him a look and he figured kings didn't need to sit down all the time anyway. It took them the better part of two hours to find something useful, and even then their plans hit a snag.

"Damn, this condo is the only thing that sounds like it could fit the four of us semi-comfortably, but even if we all gave up two-thirds we still couldn't afford" she said with a frustrated sigh.

"I guess if we really have to we have each of us donate their whole salary on a rotation" Ten Ten suggested, though she didn't look pleased about the prospect.

Surprisingly it was Naruto who saved the day. "Ah, I'll give you guys most of my salary each month. That should be enough right? " He asked.

Ino turned thoughtful. "Maybe, but we each might still have to give up more than half of our salaries. How much do you make on average?" she inquired. And when he obliged her with an answer her eyes widened. "What! That's nearly double a gennin's average pay! That's impossible!" she exclaimed. Ten Ten also looked thoroughly surprised.

"Well, my team usually gets C-Rank missions and occasionally low B-Rank missions. Plus we already completely one A-Rank and got a pretty big bonus since we we're just gennins. We only really get D-Rank missions when Kakashi-sensie punishes for not working as a team" he told heard.

The girls in turn went from shock to outright disbelief. "No way, there's no way the Hokage would allow gennins to regularly go on C-Rank missions or any B-Class missions" she said incredulously.

"Well, it might have something to do with the temper tantrum Sasuke threw awhile back about having to do so many 'pointless tasks that wouldn't help him become stronger' to the Third" he said, ignoring Ino's attempts to defend Sasuke. "Kakashi-sensie always does whatever Sasuke wants" a dark look passed over his face "so I'm sure he threw his weight around a bit. For what it's worth I hate D-Class missions too and told Ba-chan I refused to do anymore."

"Ba-chan?" Ino's voice was curious.

"Yea, you know, the Old Lady Hokage" he answered, and ill prepared when Ten Ten cracked him upside the head so hard him vision swam.

"Never, ever, refer to Tsunade-sama disrespectfully in my presence, or you'll regret it" she growled out, with everything from her voice to her posture promising violence.

This time Naruto summoned up enough back bone stick out his tongue and mutter "whatever", before her glare once again silenced him.

"Can we please get back to the matter at hand here?" Ino's exasperated voice broke through. With one last glare to each other Naruto and Ten Ten settle back down to business. "Ok, so you're saying that you'd be willing to give up most of your considerable income to help?" She questioned again.

"Well yea. I mean, as long as I have enough money for ramen and for shuriken and kunai and stuff then fine, take it" he replied with an air that was not quite nonchalant, but more like uncomprehending as to what the big deal was.

Ino was once again shocked by the other blond in their group. "Well, I guess that solve that problem then. But, I mean, I'm not trying to be ungrateful or anything but…" she trailed off and looked slightly uncomfortable. This surprised Naruto as Ino had always seemed confident, even in the little he remembered of her. It was Ten Ten who surprisingly came out with it.

"What we want to know is why the hell you would do something like for a bunch of strangers" she said rather bluntly.

Naruto scratched his head. "Um, well, I don't see what the big deal is really. To tell you the truth it I guess I'm just used it by now" he said with a shrug.

Ten Ten eyes lit with understanding, but Ino didn't get what he meant. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" she growled thinking Naruto thought himself to be some selfless saint. But Ten Ten filled her in.

"He means he's been paying rent since before this…thing" she said, clearly not happy about it but reluctant to badmouth the Fifth in even a round a bout way. She didn't bother to pay attention to Ino's reaction, choosing instead to look at Naruto. She'd never really thought about Naruto having parents, well she hadn't really thought much about him period. When she had first come into the apartment she had guessed his family might be really poor and were forced to live in a one bedroom apartment, but when she saw the lack of evidence suggesting other people she wondered if maybe Naruto and his parents didn't get along or something and instead they paid for him to have his own apartment. Now it came back to her that she had heard comments about a dead-last orphan in the year younger than her, but she hadn't really paid attention. But even if Naruto was that, shouldn't he have been a ward of the village? Apparently not, seeing as he lived alone. Him actually paying the rent on his apartment was surprising and proved he was totally on his own. She guessed it made more sense why he acted the way he did. It was then Ten Ten decided that this blond _might_ be something interesting she had overlooked. And if something new caught Ten Ten's interest, be it and item or individual, there was no escaping it.

It was then that Naruto just had to be Naruto and kill the moment when he asked, "What, do I got a boogey or something?"

The ladies present just rolled their eyes in disgust.

It took only a few days to get everything straightened out with the owner of the condo. They were lucky they had found it before any other of the gennins had. The condo belonged to a young couple who were pretty well off. The husband had been called to work abroad for a year and his wife decided to go with him. What they had really needed was for someone to watch the house for them and they decided to do that by renting it out. This was the only reason why the four gennin, even with Naruto's inflated pay, would be able to afford such housing. The couple had left a certain amount of money for the utilities and where they could be reached for the bi-monthly payment and if any emergencies occurred.

The house wasn't much but it was nice enough. From the front door there was the stairs leading immediately to the two upstairs bedrooms. To the left of these stairs was the bathroom, and to the right was the living room and through that the kitchen. The stairs to the basement were tucked under the stairs that lead upstairs. The basement was finished so it would be alright for someone to live down there. The only real problem was someone would have to sleep on the living room couch.

Moving in hadn't been as big of a deal as they thought it would be. The girls had, of course, immediately claimed the upstairs bedrooms and both Naruto and Kiba had shared a laugh watching them attempt to lug all their things up the stairs. That probably was not the wisest choice, as they would soon come to find out, but in that moment neither had really cared. Everyone had thought Naruto and Kiba would fight over who would get the basement, yet they were once again surprised when Naruto conceded to take the living room couch, even if he said it was only temporarily. It seemed the fox child had taken an immediate shine to the TV, saying as he hadn't watched TV since he was very young. Kiba had been dumbfounded at that, while Ino seemed to be a bit saddened by it (even if she would never admit it). Ten Ten just looked at him with that curious look on her face.

One thing was for sure, this was going to be interesting. Who knew what surprises laid in store? After all, they were living with Naruto.

And Naruto was the king of surprises.

* * *

-Z-

Holy shit man, it's done, it's fuckin done! Another chapter of Tension, what what! I bet none of ya'll cats saw that one comin didja? And you fuckers better appreciate it seeing as I had to forego sleep and homework on a school night all just to right this when inspiration struck. Actually, I think we need to have a talk about appreciation (and if you follow Foxhound by Kraken's Ghost, you should know what always follows those words (and if you don't wtf is wrong with you, like, seriously)).

You see, I sit here, and slave my ass off to create free, yes folks, free entertainment for you people and what do I get. One or two or eighty six-uhm, a _few_ measly reviews saying "Hey man this story is great! Update soon!" or "Hahah yo that was funny shit keep it!" What the fuck is that? Now come on, I'm a hard working fanfiction author and I feel I should get my dues. Where's the legions of mindless worshippers willing to wage jihad and my command? Where's the throngs of beautiful women throwing themselves at my feet begging to be my baby mama's? Where's the –sama at the end of my name when I'm referred to like the authors idolized in the fanfiction world get huh? Why don't I even get referred to? Where's the justice in all this?

Oh, wait, you say I don't have any of that because I actually need a good fic first?

Well, fuck you too. Whatever, I'm still not giving up on the –sama thing. Z-sama. Say it. See? It even has a nice ring to it.

Oh, you say that those authors actually update and don't keep their readers waiting for over a year?

You know what I say? I say I have a Desert Eagle and I play way more Counter-Strike than is healthy. Still wanna press your luck buddy?

You say-BLAM

Anyone else wanna be a wise ass today? No? Good.

Aight yall, I'm hella tired now and have to get up for school and be unprepared (like you care) so I'm out like a boner in sweat pants. Oh yea, make sure to check my bio for info on my upcoming fics along with some ideas/challenges. Peace,

-Z(-sama)


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